Funny Egypt Items

So I realize that I have blogged a lot about Egypt and not much else lately, but I thought of a couple funny anecdotes that I wanted to tell people. 

In the markets the people are always saying "Welcome to Alaska!" -I'm still not really sure what that means. They're always talking about Ali Baba and telling you you're breaking their hearts as well. 

Groups have to have an armed security guard, and with good reason. You may have heard about the tourists who were kidnapped in September . . . yeah, pretty sketchy. 

Getting a carriage ride in Luxor is way cheaper than a taxi. They follow you down the street and harass you. I'll say one thing for these guys. Persistence is not lacking. 

They love the word Habbibi. I guess it means friend or buddy, but they use it all the time.

I can't say enough how incredibly slimy and sleazy the Egyptian men were. Yikes. There's the joke here that we were hit on more in that week than in a whole semester at BYU!

Driving there is insane. If they have driving laws, no one follows them. Lane lines are maybe kind of there, but no one stays in them. At one point we had like five and two-thirds lanes going on. Cars, bikes, motorcycles and wagons were just everywhere. Also, the funniest thing. The bus is driving us to the airport in Cairo and the guy misses the exit. He realizes he should have turned off, and what does he do? No worries, he just kicks it into reverse and we go backwards down the highway so we can get off at the exit. Sheer madness. 

Our group seemed to be a tourist attraction everywhere we went. Everyone on Sinai was taking pictures and videos of us. At the hotel in Luxor we were building towers and such in the pool. You wouldn't believe the numbers of people watching us and taking pictures. Weird. 

Belly dancing is one of the highest-paying jobs you can have in Egypt. I think being a tour guide must pay pretty well too, since our guide had a law degree. 

Everyone and their dog and their grandma loves Bob Marley. I hadn't realized he was such a huge international sensation. Bob Marley is probably the most popular name for their horses too. It was so funny. 

Egypt is really dirty. Everything is dusty and germy, and everyone smells bad. Also, you generally have to pay to use a stinky toilet that doesn't even have toilet paper; you have to bring that with you. Even in really nice places we wouldn't dream of eating fresh fruit or vegetables that had been cut. And after you wash your hands with water to get the dirt off you still use hand sanitizer. 

Going to Egypt was such an experience. Man oh man! I love love loved it, even with the yucky men and pushy merchants and dirtiness. I was heartbroken to find out that the pyramids are not on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World, though. Egypt got jipped on that one, if you ask me. I saw some of the coolest things I will ever see there, and it is hard to imagine a better week than my week in EGYPT!